An information-theoretic approach to the design of robust digital watermarking systems

A variety of emerging applications require the design of systems for embedding one signal within another signal. We describe a new class of embedding methods called quantization index modulation (QIM) and develop a realization termed coded dither modulation in which the embedded information modulates the dither signal of a dithered quantizer. We also develop a framework in which one can analyze the performance trade-offs among robustness, distortion, and embedding rate, and we show that QIM systems have considerable performance advantages over previously proposed spread-spectrum and low-bit modulation systems.